Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging

Electric vehicle charging infrastructure supplies power to vehicles parked at a building: wall-mounted and pedestal AC chargers for overnight and workplace charging, DC fast chargers for rapid top-ups, the cabling and distribution boards that feed them, load management systems that share limited supply between chargers, and the software, payment and billing systems that run them. It is increasingly expected by tenants and residents and required for new buildings in some places, and retrofitting it into existing buildings is mostly an electrical capacity and cost-allocation problem.

In apartment buildings, the questions are as much legal as technical: who owns the car spaces and the cabling routes, how capacity is shared, who pays for the backbone, and how each user is billed. Strata and condominium law in several jurisdictions has been changed recently to make approval easier.

What shortens life:

• Weather and vandalism at external and public chargers, damaging cables and connectors.
• Vendor failure: networked chargers can be stranded if the operator or software platform disappears, unless they use open protocols.
• Heat in enclosed car parks and around high-power DC chargers.
• Poor installation, which causes nuisance tripping and earth faults.

Electrical capacity

Each charger is a large continuous load. A few uncontrolled chargers can exceed the spare capacity of a car park distribution board or the building's main supply. Without load management or a supply upgrade, adding chargers causes tripping, overheating and, at worst, overloaded cables. Capacity, not chargers, is usually the limiting factor.

Installation faults

Chargers need dedicated circuits, correct earthing and protection against specific faults such as loss of the supply neutral and DC fault currents. Chargers installed on shared circuits, without the required protection, or with poor terminations overheat, trip and create shock risks.

Software, protocols and stranded assets

Networked chargers depend on back-end software for access, billing and load management. Proprietary systems can strand chargers if the vendor fails or ends support; open protocols allow switching providers.

Billing and fairness

In shared buildings, chargers on common supply without metering shift costs to other owners; disputes follow. Sub-metering and billing systems solve this but must meet legal metrology rules where users are charged.

Fire safety concerns

Electric vehicle fires are not more frequent than petrol vehicle fires on current evidence, but they burn differently, can reignite and are harder to extinguish. In enclosed and basement car parks, location of chargers, detection, ventilation and fire brigade access are under active review by regulators.

Damage and wear

Cables run over, connectors dropped and damaged, and chargers struck by vehicles cause faults and hazards.

On site

• Chargers on circuits shared with other loads; distribution boards with no spare capacity.
• Damaged cables and connectors; chargers out of service.
• Extension leads running from outlets to vehicles in car parks, an unsafe workaround where chargers are not available.
• Chargers without bollards or wheel stops in vehicle paths.
• Chargers located near exits or fire stairs in enclosed car parks.

In the records

• Electrical capacity study and maximum demand data.
• Charger installation certificates and test results.
• Load management settings.
• Strata by-laws or agreements for EV charging.
• Charger fault and downtime logs.

A capacity problem shows when many vehicles charge at once (evenings in apartments, mornings at workplaces); an installation problem shows at one charger regardless of how many are in use.

Findings are graded by what they demand: safety (can hurt someone now), failure (failed and damaging the building), condition (distress present and progressing), lifecycle (renewal due on age and exposure), deadline (a regulator or ordinance sets the date), check (investigate before sizing works) and nil (cosmetic or stable).

Most EV findings in existing buildings are capacity and fairness issues rather than defects; the safety grade is reserved for overloaded circuits, missing protection and informal charging.

An electrical engineer leads, with an EV infrastructure specialist and, for strata buildings, advice on by-laws and cost sharing.

• Capacity study: measured maximum demand against supply and car park board ratings, and the number of chargers that can be supported with and without load management.
• Installation inspection of existing chargers: circuits, protection, earthing, terminations and test results.
• Demand forecast: likely uptake among residents, tenants or fleet, and charger types needed.
• Layout and fire review: charger locations, vehicle protection, ventilation, detection and brigade access in enclosed car parks.
• Metering and billing review: how energy is measured and charged.
• Software review: protocols, vendor support and data access.

The report should give a staged infrastructure plan from current capacity to future demand, safety rectification, and cost allocation options.

• Backbone infrastructure: a dedicated distribution board and cable tray serving the car park, sized for future chargers, so individual chargers can be added cheaply later.
• Load management sharing available capacity dynamically among chargers, often avoiding a supply upgrade.
• Supply upgrade where demand exceeds what load management can handle, coordinated with the network.
• Rectification of unsafe installations: dedicated circuits, correct protection and earthing, new terminations.
• Metering and billing for each charger or user.
• Open-protocol chargers so the building is not tied to one operator.
• Vehicle protection: bollards and wheel stops at chargers.
• Fire safety measures in enclosed car parks as guidance requires: location away from exits, detection and ventilation reviews.
• Strata by-laws setting standards, approval processes and cost sharing.

Capacity studies are lump sums. Backbone infrastructure is a lump sum per car park level; individual chargers are priced per charger with connection to the backbone. Load management is a lump sum plus subscription. Supply upgrades are large lump sums with network contributions and long lead times. Software, billing and maintenance are recurring.

Safety rectification is immediate; new-building requirements are code compliance; backbone and chargers are improvements often funded by users or tenants; replacement is lifecycle.

• Australia. EV charging installations follow AS/NZS 3000 and the charging equipment standards; the Australian Building Codes Board has published advice on EV charging in buildings; New South Wales and other states have amended strata law to ease approval of charging in apartment buildings; some planning schemes require EV-ready car parks.
• United Kingdom. Approved Document S requires charge points or cable routes in new and majorly renovated residential and non-residential buildings with parking; BS 7671 Section 722 sets installation requirements, including protection against loss of the supply neutral; the IET Code of Practice guides installation; smart charge point regulations apply.
• United States. NFPA 70 Article 625 governs EV charging installations; several states and cities require EV-ready parking in new buildings; federal funding programmes set standards for public chargers; accessibility guidance applies to accessible charging spaces.

• Electrical capacity study and maximum demand data.
• Charger installation certificates and test results.
• Load management system details and settings.
• Metering and billing arrangements.
• Strata by-laws or lease clauses on EV charging.
• Charger fault and downtime records.
• Vendor and software contracts.

• Records of any EV-related incidents or fire brigade advice for the car park.
• Network operator correspondence on supply upgrades.